The Workflow
“The job arrived as an Illustrator file,” Kerry remembers. “We converted it to an EG ink set, proofed it and went to press.
The Packaging PlayersFounders Bernard Robinson, his son Irv and six employees opened the doors to Robbie Manufacturing in 1970 with the idea to use perforated film to wrap produce. The company’s first office was housed in a former livery barn in downtown Kansas City, MO. Today, under the name Transcontinental Robbie, the company is still producing top-quality packaging products, but more than 180 employees do it from a state-of-the-art headquarters in suburban Lenexa, KS. Transcontinental Robbie specializes in on-site packaging needs for grocery stores, shrink wrap packaging of multipack consumer goods and packaging solutions for food processors.
In June 2016, Robbie Manufacturing joined the ranks of Transcontinental Inc., also an FTA member, becoming Transcontinental Robbie Inc. With 900 employees in the U.S. and Canada, TC Transcontinental Packaging ranks among the 25 leading flexible packaging suppliers in North America.
One of the premier prepress shops in the country, from its three facilities in Kansas City, Phoenix and Modesto, The ALC Group helps brands large and small find that elusive combination of handcrafted quality, technological efficiency and value. While it keeps adding newer and more advanced technologies in lithography, flexography, corrugated and large-format printing, the company has remained true to its original demand for handcrafted perfection.
“When the file was received, we preflighted it and conducted a QC check to assure it would not cause problems on press,” he continues. “The file was sent to our operators, who worked on it with Esko ArtPro. They evaluated the profile and calibrated the file to assure consistent color. In this job, the spot colors were converted to EG, while the images were kept as CMYK. Then we conducted our normal trapping and other tasks, including cutbacks on white, and step and repeat, and sent the file to the proofing department.”
Our print quality and manufacturing efficiencies enable us to compete with all printing disciplines.
Sometimes we try to enhance a 4-color separation from a photo by expanding the color. In this job, we did not remap the separations. The photos were received in CMYK and remained that way. One of the reasons was that we did not want the job to look any different from ones that had already been produced, and could conceivably still appear side by side on the shelf. However, the background and spot colors that were built into the packaging were remapped into expanded colors to match the spot versions from previous work.
Beyond that, the workflow was reasonably straightforward. “The plates were mounted—but making it a bit more difficult, we do not step plates across the web,” notes Scott McLeod, Transcontinental Robbie’s plant manager. “The two different packages were plated separately, with two lanes of plate material. We did this because if we wanted in the future to go to press pairing different SKUs together, it gave us the flexibility to do so.
He continues: “Of course, for an FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards entry, it also demonstrated exceptional precision and consistency of our work. This goes back to the characterization. Often, you have no flexibility between one side of the job to the other. If the separations and plates are not ‘nailed,’ you struggle on press. We have developed those expectations to ensure the color matches.”
Transcontinental Robbie submitted this particular job because of the details and complexities—the technical challenges. In the color builds, there are a lot of shadows and highlights on the same plate. There are multicolor text builds and design elements with multiple layers of transparency that do not hide defects. Any mistakes would show up quickly. The judges were very impressed with the registration of built type and the tonal range.
Also noteworthy was our ability to hold register on two sets of plates across the web. There were different color builds between the left and right packages, so we could not compensate by skewing one color over another. For example, we could not bump the magenta in one package without affecting the other. There was no ability to “cheat.”
The Benefits of EG
What are all the things that drive the predictability and consistency that make our work possible? We find that consistent printing CMYK plus spot colors is a struggle. The EG process allows us to fine-tune and execute all of our work in a consistent way. The proof does not look any different when printed on the shop floor—We are just more conscious of the details.
Our experience with EG printing has been very rewarding. We have one press running almost all of its work that way. We have attained a consistency that is hard to create elsewhere. That trickles down to a myriad of results:
- Our changeover times have been reduced pretty dramatically between jobs, compared to other pieces of machinery in the building
- With that comes a commensurate reduction in color match time—We are always on color
- Waste has been reduced because there are no washups
- We are able to increase press speed rather significantly. One reason is that we are printing with the same conditions every day. When you are consistent, you can fine-tune settings much easier than with a mixed-mode operation. Outside influences are eliminated. We do not have to worry about spot colors and press speed. We can focus on drying rates. Because we print with only seven predictable inks, we know what to expect. When there are hundreds of different inks, there are many different formulations to consider. We are able to push speed with greater reliability
- We have less setup waste. We spend less time and use fewer materials during our job changeovers
- Last year we received a silver award for a concept with four SKUs across the web. All were different. It’s easier to plan jobs and maximize the throughput capability of the process
- We have a smaller ink inventory. When you run EG, you also no longer need to manage the ink returns and the labor associated with ink tasks
- Though I do not have any specific evidence, I assume some of our customers are aware of the flexibility we have on press, and may be executing more efficient label inventory planning on their own. Our print quality and manufacturing efficiencies enable us to compete with all printing disciplines
This also proves that while there has always been a powerful economic reason to print EG, print quality can be exceptional, too.
The Work Up Front Makes All the Difference
The trick is to do as much experimentation and development work as possible to assure that you have created a process that is consistent and repeatable. In our case, The ALC Group has become an expert in a tool that allows it to map separations for EG. We are also using a plate making system that can build very accurate highlight and shadow dots, along with a press that is consistent and accurate enough to hold the tight registration of the plates.
As long as we print the same way as we set the characterizations, every job is going to be printed well. Beyond all of the extensive preparation work, nothing else is really out of the ordinary. It’s all standard production. All the work goes into assuring that we get the right inks and prepress and good characterizations. The day-to-day production is easy.
FTA is now accepting entries for the 2018 Excellence in Flexography Awards. Good luck!
About the Author: Pepper Stokes has been general manager of Transcontinental Robbie since the June 30, 2016 acquisition. He started his career at Robbie Manufacturing in 1993 as CFO. Over the years he wore many hats, including COO and president. Pepper has been an active member of FTA over the years, including in 2013 and 2014 as co-chair of Forum. Graduating from Central Missouri State University with a BSBA in accounting, he joined Arthur Andersen & Co. Pepper and his bride of 34 years are most proud of their two daughters and families.